What Next? Questioning Robin Hood's Masculinity?

...labelling the Big Bad Wolf a sexist, Toronto Building Inspector refusing permits to two of the three little pigs, Newton order not to sit under the tree because of the possibility of a falling object which could lead to a civil action against the owner, etc. etc.

Jessica Roake: Thomas the imperialist tank engine

There are many not-so-hidden subtexts in the popular children's show Thomas and Friends.

There is something rotten on the Island of Sodor, home to Thomas the Tank Engine. Viewers won’t find guns, violence or anything even approaching a double entendre. There’s none of the blatant racism of early Disney’s Song of the South or religion delivered through talking produce, as in Veggie Tales. Yet something about Thomas and Friends gives liberal parents the creeps.

For example: In 2009, academic Shauna Wilton wrote that Thomas carried a “conservative political ideology.” Her report was derided as whimsy-hating “political correctness” by conservative media outlets. But wait: Thomas espouses top-down leadership, is male-dominated, punishes dissent and is uninterested in the mushy sensitivity of its PBS counterparts. (Thomas and his “friends” often “tease” like this: “ ‘Wake up lazy bones! Do some hard work for a change!”) Its innate conservatism is as obvious as the liberalism of co-operative, solar-panel-building Bob the Builder and his band of hippie hammer-lovers. Given charges that Thomas is anti-Semitic and that Sodor is a fascist paradise, Wilton’s assessment is mild. Obviously, it’s foolish to claim that Thomas is a fascist. He and his friends are clearly imperialists. Read More »